One of the biggest challenges faced by many local businesses is finding the best small business marketing strategies to get customers. Often times they are on their own and lack the resources of larger companies.
They have to try to find the top ways to get customers while still operating their shops. On the surface this can seem like a hard thing to do, but it doesn’t have to be.
Small business marketing doesn’t have to be hard, or require a lot of money or time.
The best small business marketing strategies can help any enterprise bridge the gap between product and customer and overcome any challenges they face with marketing.
What Marketing Methods Can Small Enterprises Use to Attract Consumers?
There are many different ways for local enterprises to get people through their doors to buy their goods. Of course, they can use the same strategies that big companies use like advertising, but they should make sure that what they use and how they use it fits their needs.
There are ways for them to attract people that aren’t expensive or time consuming. They can take advantage of things that are strengths for them such as being part of a community and their existing customers. I want to share with you 11 of the best small businesses marketing strategies to get customers, some of which I have shared in previous posts.
Marketing Tactics That Cost Little to No Money
The first group of the best small small business marketing strategies are ones that need hardly any money to implement, and that can be utilized by even local businesses with no budget.
1. Reach Out to Your Target Audience
Your audiences are the groups or types of people that currently purchase or would like to purchase from you. Think of the groups as being men, women, or people from a location.
Using location as a way to reach a target audience, if you own a mechanic shop you what you can do is be an advocate for the people in your area. Reach out to them and have them share with you any pot holes or damaged streets they encounter on their commutes.
Offer to contact the proper authorities on their behalf and work on the roads getting repaired. Of course, you can’t promise that any damage that gets shared with you will get fixed. What you could do is maybe provide an update via social media or your website.
This tactic helps you engage with a wider audience in your area, while still being relevant to your core services. After all, any streets that get repaired will have a positive impact on the tires, shock absorbers, and alignments of the people you help.
2. Work on and Convey Your Value Proposition
Your value proposition is the value your business or product promises to deliver to the customer. Start to think about what benefit your customers and potential customers get from purchasing or using your product or service.
You can convey your value proposition through a tagline, or short statement on your website. This statement or benefit can be relayed in other places such as on a menu, advertisements, or any flyers that are passed out.
3. Market to Your Existing Customers
If you own car service you can market your limo company by implementing a reading program for your existing customers that gives you the chance to create some word-of-mouth marketing.
Tell them that if they put their phone down and read a book for the duration of the ride, you will give them a discount on the trip.
Not everyone might take you up on this offer, but some people might enjoy the chance to read peacefully or the discount on the fare price.
4. Use Free Giveaways as a Way to Introduce Your Product to People
It’s probably safe to say most people love free stuff. One of the best ways to market your product is to give away free products or samples.
You might have seen in the past people giving out free cans of some kind of juice or soda to introduce that particular drink to people.
5. Partner with Other Similar Companies to Reach More Customers
Partnerships are one of the best marketing strategies that any size businesses can use. They can be used in any industry and it doesn’t cost any money to start working with other local businesses.
For example, if you own a mobile car detailing business you can reach out to other entities in your area that offer things like window cleaning, pressure washing services, and house cleaning services.
All three of these types of businesses perform similar services and can refer your car detailing service to the people they do work for.
6. Use Social Media To Showcase Your Services
Social media marketing is one of the biggest forms of marketing that are used by businesses big and small. It’s a great way to engage with your current customer base and also reach new ones.
One of the types of content that you can share is pictures of the work you provide. For example, if you do lawn care work you can post pictures of the finished lawns.
Similarly, you can also post images of the cars you detail before and after you work on them. Make sure your customers are aware and are alright with you posting on social media.
Best Small Business Marketing Ideas That are Cheap
The tactics below are ones that don’t require a big budget. They can be uses to reach more clients and build relationships with consumers in your area.
7. Use A Signs
Most of us have probably seen the little triangle shaped signs that are placed in front of stores, on the side walk, or at the corner of the street to attract people to a business. Instead of just putting the normal information that you might typically see on them, do something different.
You can try something like putting a riddle on there and invite people to come in to the shop to give their answers and get something for free if answer correctly.
8. Sponsor Something
Sponsorships are good ways to get your brand out there and get more exposure. One strategy that can be used by a smoothie shop is sponsor a local kids pee wee soccer team at the elementary school level.
Share that you believe in the importance of exercise for kids and you can even offer free coupons for healthy smoothies to the winning team.
9. Develop Community Ties
If you are in the solar industry you can market your solar energy company by connecting with the high schools in your area. Reach out to them and offer internships for seniors who might be thinking of getting into your line work after they graduate.
This helps you develop a relationship with one of the bigger entities in your community and gets your business mentioned in classrooms, school meetings, and on the school or district website.
10. Use Price as a Strategy to Drive Traffic
One of the biggest things that can influence whether or not people purchase from you is the price of your goods.
To use price as a marketing strategy do something that creates buzz and drives traffic to your shop. If you own a restaurant offer fries for a really cheap price like .50 cents for a limited time.
Make sure there are no strings attached, and that they don’t need to purchase anything else. They can just come in and order the fries. This strategy can give you a chance to get a lot of new people coming in that have never come in before.
11. Use Your Product as a Marketing Tactic
One of the best small business marketing strategies that can be used by any size business is to use your product as a marketing tool. If you own a donuts shop what you can do is introduce or offer mini donuts.
This gives customers and potential ones alike the opportunity to get something they are craving for and not worry as much about how much sugar they are consuming.
As you can see there many ways for local or small enterprises to market their goods. The best small business marketing strategies don’t always have to be expensive or hard. Cheap and simple strategies are just as available to any small business who wants to reach more consumers.
Leave a Reply